The future always comes as a surprise, but political wisdom consists in attempting at least some partial judgment of what that surprise may be. And f… - Hilaire Belloc

Then let us love one another and laugh. Time passes, and we shall soon laugh no longer—and meanwhile common living is a burden, and earnest men are in siege upon us all around. Let us suffer absurdities, for this is only to suffer one another.

And you, Archers and Barrack-room companions of war, of high birth or of low, who stand before the good town of Orleans, be off, in the name of God, to your own Country. King of England, if you will not do so, I am a Leader in War and in what ever place I may find your folk in France I will turn them out willy nilly, and who will not obey I shall kill and who will obey I shall spare. Nor believe that you can hold aught of the Realm of France. No, by God, the Son of Mary! Charles the King will hold it, the right heir. For God the King of Heaven wills it so, as the Maid has revealed to him. He will come at last into Paris with a goodly company. If you will not hearken to the words of God by the mouth of the Maid, in whatever place we find you we will strike great swinges and make such a rough-and-tumble as has not been raised in France this thousand years. Then shall we see which has better right from the God of Heaven, we or you!

I put my pencil upon the paper, doubtfully, and drew little lines, considering my theme. But I would not long hesitate in this manner, for I knew that all creation must be chaos first, and then gestures in the void before it can cast out the completed thing.